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GAY RIGHTS IN WORKPLACE.   Term Paper ID:23999 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Argues against special federal law protecting rights of gays at work. History of gay social activism & legislation, discrimination, morality, alternatives to federal law.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Argues against special federal law protecting rights of gays at work. History of gay social activism & legislation, discrimination, morality, alternatives to federal law. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the proposition that federal legislation should not protect sexual preference at the work place. The plan of the research will be to set forth the social, cultural, and political context in which the issue has assumed importance in recent years and then to discuss the basis for the view that sexual preference does not merit the status in law of special civil-rights or employment-opportunity protections. When Congress debated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, an opponent of the legislation who sought to show how absurd the idea of extending equal protection to racial minorities in the area of public accommodations inserted a provision that would extend to women the same protections that the bill afforded to blacks. The bill became law, and by means of Title IX, women as well as ethni Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. . [3]David L. "The Political Power of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals." PS 29 (September 1996): 469-473.Spring, Natasha. The next steps would appear to be to assess indetail where federal legislation, especially in the face of untested andunreviewed state laws covering this topic, is likely to lead. A 1993 study reported thatabout one percent of males in a survey sample identified themselves ashomosexual. Rauch cites constitutional implications for the continuation of such ajudicial line, including threats to the First Amendment and the potentialfor mobilized authorities to characterize as bigotry any speech or action(in workplace or elsewhere) of which they do not approve. For it is a curious fact that thisresearch revealed no evidence of advocacy for partner benefits for (say)lifelong roommates who are not homosexual. [24]Ibid., 42. C., et al. [19]Kenneth A. "State Labor Legislation Enacted in 1992." Monthly Labor Review 116 (January 1993): 35-49.Painton, Priscilla, and Toufexis, Anastasia. C., et al. Philadelphia: W.B. Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and Possible Resurrection of progressive Politics in America. This program is designed to overcome that."[15] Evidence of corporate good faith with regard to job security andconcern not to alienate the gay community more generally, includingarticulations of corporate policy that specifically and programmaticallydeplore workplace discrimination as a general principle, offersinsufficient protections against employment discrimination, according tothose who wish to formalize such protections by federal legislation.Indeed, writing in 1986, Susser points out that federal law is virtuallysilent on the subject of discrimination based on sexual preference in theprivate sector.[16] The view that as a consequence homosexuals are quitevulnerable to employment discrimination has persisted since 1986. As Griffin notes,"Within a week, the Gay Liberation Front was meeting at New York'sAlternative University and a new era was born."[4] Though gay and lesbianconsciousness had been fomenting throughout the '6 s, the so-calledStonewall Rebellion is viewed as the watershed that led to the GayLiberation Movement. Saunders Co., 1953),passim. Kovach, "Proposal Would Expand Civil RightsLegislation," Employment Relations Today, 22 (Autumn 1995): 9-1 ; 12. Keyes, "How Should Society Handle Injustice?" HarvardJournal of Law and Public Policy 19 (Spring 1996): 645. Philadelphia: W.B. The psychocultural case for and against services to the gay andlesbian employee community has been compellingly made by anecdote, theory,argument, and inference. They make war not on errors but on error, and like other totalists they act in the name of public safety--the safety, especially, of minorities.[22]Rauch cites workplace-related federal mandates that employers "eliminateprejudice. Kovach, "Gay Employees Are Coming Out and DemandingFair Play" [sidebar], Personnel Journal 74 (August 1995): 48-9. From a variety of sources,questions have arisen regarding whether interest-group advocacy forhomosexuals has or should have the same standing as such advocacy forhistorically marginalized groups. "Individual Freedoms and Employer Policies and Benefit Practices." Employment Relations Today 19 (Autumn 1992): 353-8.Keyes, Alan L. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. In this regard, Kovach, who reports that supporters of ENDArecognize the competitive need to recruit and retain the most qualifiedcandidates and the training and unemployment-insurance costs of dismissinggays, adds that ENDA's opponents draw a distinction between homosexualbehavior as lifestyle and the moral/physical certainty of race and genderas attributes of civil rights legislation.[3 ] The distinction between well established strands of civil rightsdiscourse and legislation and the claims made for civil rights legislationbased on sexuality seems a useful one. BibliographyCarlin, David R. In order to protect people like me(homosexual), they must pursue people like me (dissident). so as toachieve "the goal of eliminating prejudices and biases from oursociety."[23] Rauch expresses dismay that courts "pursue prejudice in thename of protecting minorities. In this regard, Sherrillcites "stark" statistics that homosexuals are "objects of overwhelminglycold feelings on the part of the American people." Sherrill continues: Only illegal aliens, who are neither citizens nor voters, rival lesbians and gay men in this regard. But this is something government has no business doing. "Gay Employees Are Coming Out and Demanding Fair Play" [sidebar] Personnel Journal 74 (August 1995): 48-9.Kovach, Kenneth A. [A] Northern Colorado-based division of Hewlett-Packard Co. [29]Liz Winfield, and Susan Spielman, "Making Sexual Orientation Partof Diversity," Training & Development 49 (April 1995): 5 -1. In this regard,Jorgensen cites evidence that some corporations have adopted so-calledmulticultural and lifestyle diversity programs,[13] not only because ofemployment laws in respect of minorities and the disabled covered by civilrights legislation but also because lifestyle-diverse demographics are feltto have potential influence on product and service success in the market.Another perspective is that corporations that engage in policies oremployee benefits that might be perceived as intrusive or somehow aimed atdiscriminating against employees on the basis of sexual preference riskloss of employee morale, public relations problems, litigation, and highturnover.[14] In general, corporations are advised to be prudent withrespect to implementation of such policies. [6]A. . [18]Ibid., 47. "Fighting Words: Gay, Lesbian Groups Seek to Expunge Bias They See in Language." The Wall Street Journal, 3 May 1993: Al.Jorgensen, Barbara. Tomasky develops the civil-society line of thought in moredetail, arguing that homosexual (and other minority) identity politics, asvaluable as it has been in opening up opportunities to minorities, has byits intensive and confrontational concentration on minority rightsalienated potential allies and threatened "civic community."[27] Carlinagrees, saying that "In a free society it is not the business of governmentto teach, even by implication, that these traditional doctrines arewicked."[28] There appears to be a variety of evidence demonstrating that theprivate sector as a class is making good-faith efforts to assure thatdiscrimination in any form (including but not limited to that associatedwith sexual preference) does not occur on the job, and we have seen thatlifestyle diversity is part of the calculus for some corporate programs.Indeed, the professional literature contains evidence of moral suasiontoward the view that lifestyle diversity, in particular that related tosexual preference, should become a focus of corporate culture: balancingthe moral beliefs of some with the diverse lifestyles of others.[29] Butcorporate policy is one thing, and federal legislation and mandate areanother. "How Should Society Handle Injustice?" Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 19 (Spring 1996): 645-65 .Kinsey, A. Plainly, the hope of those who promote gay rights legislation is that these laws will encourage public acceptance of homosexuals and homosexual conduct by stigmatizing as bigoted those who disapprove. One aspect of the marginalization is demographic in nature.Traditionally, sources estimated that some 1 percent of the generalpopulation is homosexual, with up to 18 percent considered equallyheterosexual and homosexual.[6] Contrast this with the Native Americanpopulation, which is covered by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and whichaccounts for about one percent of the U.S. When Congress debated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, an opponent of thelegislation who sought to show how absurd the idea of extending equalprotection to racial minorities in the area of public accommodationsinserted a provision that would extend to women the same protections thatthe bill afforded to blacks. In an extended critical essay on the implications ofmulticulturalism as a positive social idea, Rauch (a self-describedhomosexual) makes the point that given the choice between an authenticallypluralistic society devoted to freedom and a supposedly multiculturalsociety that in fact enforces a minority-culture orthodoxy, he would choosethe former, including but not limited to issues surrounding workplacediscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Nelson, "State Labor Legislation Enacted in 1992,"Monthly Labor Review 116 (January 1993): passim. Susser, "Sexual Preference Discrimination: LimitedProtection for Gay Workers," Employment Relations Today 13 (Spring 1986):58-9. This is byway of saying that the evidence does not appear to support the view thatthe next step is federal legislation itself. Americans are less likely to place their feelings toward illegal aliens at zero than they are to locate their feelings toward lesbians and gay men at zero. "Politics out of the Closet." Nation, 9-16 September 1996: 44-5 .Kovach, Kenneth A. "Freedom of Speech vs. . Since the early 198 s, courts and the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission have moved to bar workplace speech deemed to createa hostile or abusive working environment for minorities . "The Shrinking Ten Percent." Time, 26 April 1993: 27-29.Rauch, Jonathan. [11]Lawrence Ingrassia, Fighting Words: Gay, Lesbian Groups Seek toExpunge Bias They See in Language, The Wall Street Journal, 3 May 1993: Al. Saunders Co., 1953.Kinsey, A. Carlin, "The Gay Movement and Aggressive Secularism,"America, 23 September 1995: 14. . "There's a huge spectrum of fear among gay employees," says Susan Phillips, HR manager. The bill became law, and by means of Title IX,women as well as ethnic minorities have engaged in "organized resistance todiscrimination." [1] As a group or class, homosexuals have not been included in the 1964Civil Rights Act designation of minorities to be protected by civil rightslegislation. Laarman, Linda M. One is hostility to civilrights legislation that as a matter of principle is felt to degenerate intospecial pleading for the affected minority group. According to D'Emilio, Stonewall did not "cause" gayliberation but rather provided a point of departure around which a civil-rights-oriented movement already in place could publicly organize and fromwhich it could gather momentum.[5] Interest-group politics for gay activists since 197 has been aimed atincreasing the scope of civil rights protections for homosexuals since197 . In 1994, it was 28.2%-up from 22.2% in 1992, but down from the high of 35.2% in 1988. L. "In Defense of Prejudice." Harper's May 1995: 37-46.Sherrill, Kenneth. It is fair to ask whence the visibility and concomitantdemand by homosexual college students for the kinds of civil rightsentitlements that, from the time of the success of Martin Luther King,Jr.'s 1956 boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama, municipal bus lines, hadbeen achieved by such politicized minority groups as blacks, nativeAmericans, women, Asians, Hispanics, etc. . [3 ]Kenneth A. [17]Caudron, 44. "Sexual Preference Discrimination: Limited Protection for Gay Workers." Employment Relations Today 13 (Spring 1986): 57-66.Tomasky, Michael. [25]David R. The one-word answer: Stonewall. Taking the view that contemporary society hasbowed to claims for equality before the law and substituted legislation forvalues of freedom and self-government, Keyes cites "the growing obsessionin this country with group rights and victimization--for example, sexualharassment in the workplace and the gay rights agenda."[1 ] A similar pointis made by Ingrassia,[11] who cites gay activists' encouragement of theview that such terms as sexual preference and homosexual agenda diminishrespect for a much-victimized minority. . Oneaspect of this is the "invisibility" of that subculture, relative to themainstream heterosexual culture; lesbians or gays who do not identifythemselves as such are not especially targeted for services uniquely gearedto their needs. This potentialfor judicial and constitutional chaos points up a fact that may be inferredabout the dangers of enacting federal legislation regarding workplacediscrimination on the basis of sexual preference. Another ground is moraland religious, with the dominant view being that "if the bill becomes law,for the first time in history Americans will be told that they must hirepeople they believe to be committing immoral acts precisely because theycommit those acts. "They frequently don't believe they have an ally anywhere. Further, it cannot be said that the gay and lesbianworkplace-advocacy community as it were speaks with one voice. Asking whether "atthis late date" in pluralistic America, anyone really "wants the law topermit refusal of housing and jobs to gays and lesbians," Carlin suggeststhat a drive for legally mandated lifestyle approval informs gay activism. That is, the whole issue of gay rights anddiscrimination appears to have entered the American social, political, andcultural discourse for good, at least in the near term. Political conservatives took this to mean that politicians neednot concern themselves with gay-activist political demands, while oneactivist expressed fear that the numbers presaged increased discriminationagainst those who had claimed legitimacy for their demands partly on thestrength of the representation of homosexuals in the population: "Democracyis all about proving you have the numbers. [1 ]Alan L. [12]Natasha Spring, "Freedom of Speech vs. Federal legislation such as ENDAwould differ again from these individual laws, which means that the processof untangling and reviewing the constitutional implications of sexualpreference discrimination promises to be extraordinarily complex andfractious. Kinsey, et al., SexualBehavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia; W.B. Finally there is the argument from elitism; that is,as a statistically identified group high on the socioeconomic ladder,homosexuals benefited by ENDA would not be so much protected as speciallyprivileged. [4]J. "The Gay Movement and Aggressive Secularism." America, 23 September 1995: 12-16.Caudron, Shari. [2 ]Ibid., 49. "Making Sexual Orientation Part of Diversity." Training & Development 49 (April 1995): 5 -1.----------------------- [1]Anthony Layng, "Tracing the Roots of Sexual Discrimination," USAToday: The Magazine of the American Scene, September 1993: 77. [28]Carlin, 15. In 1984, 3 .5% rated their feelings toward gay people at zero. Sexual behavior in the Human Female. Politically Correct Language." Communication World 9 (April 1992): 34-7.Susser, Peter A. Kovach cites fourprincipal grounds on which ENDA is opposed. [15]Caudron, 45. Saunders Co., 1948); A. [7]Layng, 78. . Longitudinal (and statistical, notanecdotal) tracking of attitudes of workers, managers, corporate policymakers, and government entities could provide an important and informativeindex of the true status of homophobic behavior in the workplace.Meanwhile, repeated and thorough investigation and evaluation of the kindand quality of services and benefits that may be provided (or denied) togay and lesbian workers must be an ongoing part of any research into sexual-preference legislative history. [5]James D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making ofa Homosexual Minority in the United States, 194 -197 (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1983), passim. Griffin provides a succinct account ofthe June 28, 1969, incident that took place in the Greenwich Village bar ofthat name frequented by "drag queens." What began as a more or less routinepolice raid on a gay bar escalated into a two-day riot. Nor do they end with persons or groups historically antagonistic tohomosexuals. Meanwhile, Spring deplores theemergence of so-called "politically correct" linguistic customs andpractices, which under the guise of fostering respect for persons having(say) an unconventional sexual preference in fact fosters ambiguity andmiscommunication.[12] Undoubtedly, interest-group activism has had an impact in many venuesof the culture. The real purpose of such laws, I contend, is to put government's implicit stamp of moral approval on homosexual conduct, stigmatizing as bigots those who disapprove. C. "Open the Corporate Closet to Sexual Orientation Issues." Personnel Journal 74 (August 1995): 42-55.D'Emilio, James. The decision to "comeout" is widely acknowledged to be fraught with social and psychologicalrisk.[3] Yet since 197 , persons who identify themselves with what has come tobe known in the culture as the lesbian (female homosexual) and gay (malehomosexual) community have organized around issues of discrimination in avariety of venues. As Nelson notes, in theearly 199 s Vermont, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii,Massachusetts, and Wisconsin enacted such laws, which are bound to reachthe federal appeals system over the next several years.[26] As might beexpected in a federal system, each state's version of an anti-discrimination law differs from the next. Compared to other organized groups in the culture, homosexualshave historically not engaged in a good deal of civil rights activism. [26]Richard R. If you want to believe in intellectual freedom and the progress of knowledge and the advancement of science and all those other good things, then you must swallow hard and accept this: for as thickheaded and wayward an animal as us, the realistic question is how to make the best of prejudice, not how to eradicate it.[21]The basis for Rauch's argument appears to be that one need not argue thejustice of bigotry to prefer it to an absence of intellectual pluralism andfreedom: The new crusade against prejudice . In recent years, however, interest-group politics in general and thepositions represented by activists in particular have come in forcontroversy, criticism, and opposition. The purpose of this research is to examine the proposition thatfederal legislation should not protect sexual preference at the work place.The plan of the research will be to set forth the social, cultural, andpolitical context in which the issue has assumed importance in recent yearsand then to discuss the basis for the view that sexual preference does notmerit the status in law of special civil-rights or employment-opportunityprotections. Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male(Philadelphia: W.B. [9]Kenneth Sherrill, "The Political Power of Lesbians, Gays, andBisexuals," PS 29 (September 1996): 469. "Diversity: Managing a multicultural Work Force." Electronic Business Buyer 19 (September 1993) 7 -5. "The Pain and Gain of Being Gay: Reflections on a Cause That Came out of the Closet 2 Years Ago." Chicago Tribune, 26 June 1989: 1.Ingrassia, Lawrence. If you want pluralism, then you get racism and sexism and homophobia, and communism and fascism and xenophobia and tribalism, and that is just for a start. To put it another way, one couldask whether an avowal of homosexuality would be required before corporatebenefits could be extended to a partner. Griffin, "The Pain and Gain of Being Gay: Reflections on aCause That Came out of the Closet 2 Years Ago," Chicago Tribune, 26 June1989: 1. What bothers them, in other words, is not that gays are kept out of jobs and housing, which rarely happens, but that many Americans continue to disapprove of homosexuality. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 194 -197 . Another aspect is the pattern of violence and hostilitydirected against the "visible" homosexual culture. No other group of Americans is the object of such sustained, extreme, and intense distaste. The foundation of that distinctionis that, if there is a moral or rational equivalence of sexuality with raceor sex, it is properly found in what could be called the hearts and mindsof the key players in the workplace, but not in prescriptive legislation.That explains why Mickins takes the view that, although conceptualizationof diversity should be expanded to include sexual preference andhomosexuals should be treated fairly, corporation not required to takeeither a pro-gay or anti-gay position.[31] To the degree private-sector attitudes and behavior are alreadyaccounting for well-articulated concerns about the fact or potential forworkplace discrimination on the basis of sexual preference, advocacy forfederal legislation somehow meant to establish or guarantee access to civilrights remedies against such discrimination can be characterized asdisproportionate. Saunders Co., 1948.Kirp, David L. [23]Ibid. L. [27]Michael Tomasky, Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and PossibleResurrection of Progressive Politics in America (New York: Free Press,1996), passim. Laarman, "Individual Freedoms and Employer Policies andBenefit Practices," Employment Relations Today 19 (Autumn 1992): 355ff;Shari Caudron, "Open the Corporate Closet to Sexual Orientation Issues,"Personnel Journal 74 (August 1995): 42-3, et passim. "Tracing the Roots of sexual Discrimination." USA Today: The Magazine of the American Scene, September 1993: 76-78.Mickens, Ed. Nor can itbe fairly said that, since Stonewall, there has been as much attention paidto evidence of good faith efforts at providing solutions to workplace-related problems of vocal identity-politics minorities as there has been tohighlighting problems themselves. . Even casual acquaintance with the proponents of gay rights laws reveals that their concern is not with discrimination (an action) but with what they regard as prejudice (an attitude). In order tobolster minority self-esteem, they suppress minority opinion."[24] Carlin sees the legislative agenda against sexual-preference bigotryas a screen for a larger agenda of identity politics. Forexample, Caudron cites a survey of corporate executives showing that abouttwo-thirds would hesitate to hire a known homosexual as a manager.[17] To redress what is seen as a gap in employment protections forhomosexual employees, interest-group advocates favor enactment of theEmployment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would allow gays, bisexualsand lesbians to use such legislative guarantees as punitive damages andreinstatement mechanisms to fight employment-related discrimination, whilealso emphasizing in the language of the law "that sexual orientation has nobearing on one's ability to contribute to the economic needs ofsociety."[18] Noting increased demands for life-partner insurance coveragein the corporate environment, Kovach cites widespread support for ENDA,from Senator Edward Kennedy, who describes the proposed law in civil rightsterms, to a range of corporate, organized-labor, civil-rights, andreligious associations that span liberal and moderate philosophies andcauses.[19] But ENDA also has opposition, which is led by but not confined toconservative think tanks and religious organizations. "Proposal Would Expand Civil Rights Legislation." Employment Relations Today, 22 (Autumn 1995): 9-15.Layng, Anthony. This interferes with freedom of association, freedom ofspeech and freedom of religion."[2 ] A third ground is legal, principallyto the degree that opponents of ENDA fear that on implementation it will bea mechanism of quotas. Some corporations, however,have sought to address the issues associated with workplace discriminationfrom the inside. [2]Sherrill, 47 . New York: Free Press, 1996.Winfield, Liz, and Spielman, Susan. The arguments against federal legislation meant to protect sexualpreference at the workplace do not end with the objections that Kovachcites. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.Griffin, J. [31]Ed Mickens, "Including Sexual Orientation in Diversity Programsand Policies," Employment Relations Today 21 (Autumn 1994): 265; 27 ff. . population as a whole.[7] Other sources disagree with these figures. Some observers findthis development troublesome. "Including Sexual Orientation in Diversity Programs and Policies." Employment Relations Today 21 (Autumn 1994): 263-75.1Nelson, Richard R. C. [8]Priscilla Painton, and Anastasia Toufexis, "The Shrinking TenPercent," Time, 26 April 1993: 28. [21]Jonathan Rauch, "In Defense of Prejudice," Harper's May 1995: 39. Those who used to be deviant (homosexuals) will no longer be so, and those who used to be morally orthodox (religious traditionalists) will now be deviant.[25]In his zeal to make the moral point that the agenda of gay rightslegislation is to seek cultural sanction for homosexuality, Carlin misses alogical connection that tends to delegitimate claims against that view onthe part of identity-politics advocates. In any case, such hostility does not face any other group in the electorate.[2]The widespread hostility to gays, says Sherrill, means that gays are deniedequal protection and opportunity on one hand and are constantly on thedefensive to protect their rights on the other, thus limiting theiropportunity to initiate rights protection proposals. has developed what it calls the "safe place program." Developed by the company's gay and lesbian employee network, the program is designed to educate HR [human resources] people about gay and lesbian workplace issues so that gay employees feel they have a safe place to go with their problems. [22]Ibid., 41. [16]Peter A. [14]Linda M. Kirp, "Politics out of the Closet." Nation, 9-16 September1996: 47. [13]Barbara Jorgensen, "Diversity: Managing a Multicultural WorkForce," Electronic Business Buyer 19 (September 1993) 72-3. . Politically CorrectLanguage," Communication World 9 (April 1992): 36. demand[s] not that misguided ideas and ugly expressions be corrected or criticized but that they be eradicated. The more numbers you can proveyou have, the more likely you'll get your due."[8] Meanwhile, Sherrillpoints out: "More recent surveys have asked people whether or not theythink of themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual, and get much lower numbers-anywhere from 1% to 6 or 7%, but typically in the 3% range."[9] The persistence of controversy over demographic representation isactually an indication of continued homosexual interest-group activism on avariety of issue fronts. There is compelling evidence that the impact is especiallystrongly felt in the business environment, which functions according toequal-employment-opportunity legislation and regulation. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.